Barbie's Bakery is a business plan for an innovative retail bakery located in Surat City, India. The bakery will be owned equally by Miranda Fuchs, Megan Swan, and Corey Deaton, who will also act as operators. Miranda will serve as CEO, Megan as CMO and head baker, and Corey as CFO. The bakery aims to stand out by allowing customers to design their own cakes and cupcakes using in-store tablets. It will focus on quality products and customer service in a modern setting. The plan outlines marketing, financial, and operational details to launch and run the bakery successfully.
1. Business Plan
Miranda Fuchs Chief Executive Officer
Corey Deaton Chief Financial Officer
Megan Swan Chief Marketing Officer 2
2. Table of Contents:
Title Page……..........................................................................................................Page 1
Table of Contents…. ...............................................................................................Page 2
Executive Summary ...............................................................................................Page 3
Business Description …...........................................................................................Page 4
Mission/Vision Statement… ...................................................................................Page 5
Core Values..............................................................................................................Page 6
Competitive Analysis……... ...................................................................................Page 6
Industry Product Development…..........................................................................Page 7
Management Team Plan….....................................................................................Page 7
Marketing Plan……................................................................................................Page 8
Financial Plan……... ...............................................................................................Page 10
Appendices… ...........................................................................................................Page 12
References…. ...........................................................................................................Page 16
3. Executive Summary:
We are Barbie’s Bakery Shop , an innovative retail bakery in Surat City with the mission to service high
quality baked goods in a modern, stylish and creative way, We will sell freshly baked breads and desserts
made from the highest grade of ingredients, filling the Surat city’s need for a classic bakery What will make
our business stand out in the baked goods industry is our drive to let the customers be inspired through their
own designed creations, as well as our unique stylish cakes for every occasion. In our store, located
conveniently on the bypass, we will have specified stations with our fun and easy-to-use design tablets for the
customers to fashion their own cakes or cupcakes, which then our bakers will create for them.
Barbie’s Bakery values having great customer service, keeping up-to-date with technology to remain as
competitive and customer friendly as possible, and contributing to the local community through non-profit
organizations, like St. Martins and the Grant County Mission, through donating our two day-old baked goods
among other things. In each of these three categories, our bakery plans to improve upon continuously.
We believe that we are coming into the retail bakery industry at an optimal time, despite the bad economy of
today. There are no bakery shops near the Surat area, giving us a big break into the industry. The only
competition Barbie’s Bakery predicts to have is the bakery sections at the large supermarkets, Walmart,
Marsh, and Meijer, which are on either ends of town. These big three will be our greatest threat. Fortunately,
the economy has not hurt bakeries. “The consumer price index for food, an indicator of bakery product
values, rose 4.7 percent in September 2011 compared to the same month in 2010” (“Hoovers”). We will
remain successful in our industry by keeping alert to customer trends such as health, convenience, and
pleasure.
Our target market will be the higher end of middle class workers and above, however effort will be made to
give lower incomes opportunities to buy our products, such as through our day-old bread section. Our prices
will tend to be higher than those of our local competitors, mainly for the reason that we strive for higher
quality in our products. We would like to see daily somewhere from 100 to 200 customers varying in age
groups but focused on our target market. We predict making about $400 a day on average, $16,000 a month.
Barbie’s Bakery will be a general partnership between Miranda Fuchs, Megan Swan, and Corey Deaton, who
will also act as operators. All three partners will share equal ownership of the company. Ms. Fuchs will be
CEO of the business and assistant baker to Ms. Swan, the head baker and CMO. Mr. Deaton is CFO and will
be in charge of all technology required for the business.
We hope to contact our customers through the Internet by the use of social networking sites and our own
website, through business cards, brochures that provide our menu and product selection, a window display
that will be a direct aesthetic appeal, and in the beginning use advertisements in the newspaper to introduce
our new business.
We will require $75,000 for start-up cost, which will be placed fully on bank loan, but we predict that the
debt will be paid after two years. In the beginning we will only need two minimum-wage workers aside from
4. the three of us participating in the business plan to run the bakery but more may be added as finances allow it
and demand requires it. 4
5. Business Description:
Our team has decided that what Surat and Grant county needs is a “hometown” bakery and the exciting
experience that can be gained there. We do recognize that there is a slight risk trying to open a bakery,
especially in a city location where bakeries have tried and not been successful before. The start up with a
business such as ours is risky because it does require certain equipment that other businesses do not. Other
obstacles include the permits and licenses that we would need to get in order to sell food but once we have
passed these beginning challenges, we believe that our business will head in a positive direction. A luxury
and high quality bakery doesn’t seem to fit in the current economic status, but with our target market of the
upper middle class playing a pretty prominent role in Surat and the need for a more personal bakery in town,
our business has the ability to not only stay open, but be successful. This leads us to our biggest priority,
providing customers of the Barbie’s Bakery with quality baked products and an experience to take away from
our shop.
Our primary focus is on the quality of the baked goods and incorporating creativity by having a separate area
to design your own cake or cupcakes (See appendix B). This will be the biggest difference between our
current competitors and us. By using hand held tablets locked into tables on location, our customers will have
a chance to use their own imaginations and combine it with our skilled bakers to make their dream cakes and
cupcakes a reality. With a program we hope to have designed, our tablets will provide a fun interactive way
to make the customers feel as though they played an important role in the process of making some of our
products for whatever their reasons may be.
A goal of ours is that the shop will have a more modern feel and keep up with the technology that is always
advancing around us. This includes both in-store technology such as our register and design stations with the
tablets, and outside the store technology with the website that we hope to create. Our website will provide an
organized way to order and design cakes or cupcakes from home, similarly to the program on the in-store
tablets. The online site will provide potential customers with an easy way to place orders as well as show
them what our bakery is all about. The Barbie’s bakery would like to make our customers feel as though they
play a part in the bakery and the process of making their creations and we feel that the technology that we
incorporate can help us do that. The fact that we would incorporate so much technology and have a more
modern style not only separates us from the competition in the town of Surat, but also sets us apart from other
“hometown” bakeries.
Barbie’s Bakery will be making food products but we don’t want to consider ourselves a sit and eat
restaurant. We predict that this bakery will be a place where people stop and pick up items that they may
want on a whim, or where they have come to pick items that they have specially designed or ordered. Despite
the fact that having a place to sit and eat is not our top priority we do want to offer some convenience to our
customers by making a seating area available with a few tables and chairs. It’s our goods we are selling, but
our service that will assist with attracting consumers.
6. We believe the optimum location in Surat would be along the bypass where we could easily be spotted by
everyday passer bys and also conveniently 5
7. located relatively close to the middle of town. Both the North and South end of Surat hold our major
competitors: Marsh on the north side of town, and Walmart and Meijer on the southern end. By placing
ourselves in the middle we believe we have a better chance of competing with the wide range of other baked
good producers.
As with many businesses there will be a fairly simple routine of things that happen during the business week.
We will make the bread during the night and early morning in order for our products to be made fresh and
ready to serve customers throughout the day. We hope to open our doors at 5:30a.m. Monday through
Saturday, and run through a business day until we close shop at 2:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and
5:00 p.m. on Friday and Sa58turday. Throughout the day we expect customers to swing by on their way to
work, enjoy a quick bite during lunch breaks, or place special orders either by phone, website, or by the in-
store design area. Our employees will be serving our customers by helping them make decisions, assisting in
the case that something is wrong with our technology, or just being present and able to answer questions or
concerns that customers may have. As the business day comes to an end, all the baked goods that are not sold
during the day that are baked fresh on a daily basis will be moved to an area for things that are a day old to be
sold the next day for half price. If the next day our half-priced items are not sold, we plan on giving them to
local organizations that would want our products such as the Boys and Girls Club, or the Grant County
Rescue Mission. This routine would then be repeated during the business week.
We want to take pride in the products we make, and ultimately in the business in its entirety. What will make
the Barbie’s Bakery successful is its uniqueness, creativity inspired focus, and our more personal level of
doing business compared to our competition with the bigger supermarkets. There is no place in Surat where
you can design your own specialty cakes as precisely as we hope to set it up, and although you can pick from
designs out of a book in our competitors’ stores, the effort, detail and quality in our own bakery will be top of
the line. No longer will people have to struggle to find exactly what they want in their cakes or cupcakes, but
instead they have the control to design exactly what they desire. While people may come for our cakes and
cupcake designers, they won’t be let down by our other wide variety of baked goods that our shop will
provide. Success will be evident as we fill the need for a classic bakery in Grant County.
Mission/Vision Statement:
Barbie’s Bakery Mission Statement:
Our mission is to serve surat city with our high quality baked goods
in a modern,stylish and creative way.
Vision Statement: In the future we intend to adapt through marketing and technology to sustain our modern
edge to be as customer-friendly as possible and provide the best products in our field. We also plan to
continue to invest in our community through partnerships with other businesses and nonprofit organizations.
8. Core Values:
Serve... Sustain... Contribute...
-Service: We work hard to provide an inviting environment for our customers and serve them in the best and
most efficient way possible.
- Sustainability: We wish to use technology to connect with the people of the advancing times, working with
our customers to produce their own inspired creations and update as the technology around us advances.
-Community Contribution: We are committed to contributing to organizations in Grant County like St.
Martins and the Boys and Girls Club through our products and funding, and increasing our involvement in
other opportunities.
Industry Product Development:
The US bakery industry includes about “6,000 retail bakeries with combined annual revenue of about $3
billion.” The revenue is spread out among the businesses; the top fifty retail bakeries make only about fifteen
percent of the retail industry revenue (“Hoovers”). The start up of a new competitive bakery into the industry
can be risky because of the high costs of the necessary kitchen equipment. However, competitively, the retail
bakery industry is not too aggressive because each facility can usually only attract potential customers in its
area. Thus Barbie’s Bakery will not have to compete with bakeries on the other side of the country like what
businesses in commercial industries must do. In the past year, new companies have been able to enter the
retail bakery industry and be successful, so it is certainly possible for us.
It may seem to be a strange time to open a new luxury bakery while the economy has been on a decline,
however results show that the industry is doing well despite the shaky economy. “The consumer price index
for food, an indicator of bakery product values, rose 4.7 percent in September 2011 compared to the same
month in 2010” (“Hoovers”). As the senior vice president of Summit International LLC, a supermarket
consulting firm in Sedona, Arizona, Ron Danko stated that baked goods are “in a unique position among
other foods during turbulent financial times” (Reynolds). He explained how pastries are desired on a whim,
so are not bought with the same careful planning as other food purchases which are spurred simply by a
grocery list. Because of this, the success of our bakery is not as dependent on the economy as other products.
In fact, our industry may have a slight advantage from the economy. Baked goods are comfort foods, and
during stressful times people look for more comfort in many forms. This resembles Ron Danko’s statement
that hurting people desire donuts. So regardless of the economy, we predict our bakery to be successful with a
steady growth.
The future of the industry as a whole depends majorly on its ability to follow customer trends. Barbie’s
Bakery will have to stay alert to these trends to be successful. As of right now, the trend focus is on health,
convenience, and pleasure (“Frost & Sullivan”). Providing smaller portion sizes, organic ingredients, and
low/light products that have reduced fat, sugars, and carbohydrates, are a few ways to appeal to health
conscience 7
9.
10. customers (“Frost & Sullivan”). Besides health, customers want what is convenient to them. By locating our
store on the bypass and in the middle of town, we are making ourselves convenient to our customers to get to.
The last desire from the customers is slightly in contrast to the first, but is understandable. More often than
not, and more than what consumers would readily admit, the comforting, delicious taste and aesthetics of a
product matters more than the calories it contains. Pleasure is that last consumer trend, but we believe that
Barbie’s Bakery will be able to easily advance and follow the customer trends. Through its efforts, our bakery
will be successful in its industry.
Competitive Analysis:
There are no other retail bakeries in Surat or the surrounding towns to be in competition with our business,
however the three main supermarkets, Walmart, Marsh, and Meijer, all sell baked goods items. These big
three will be Barbie’s Bakery’s greatest competitors. Fortunately, the strengths of these three groceries are all
the same, and typical of commercial food product businesses, allowing our bakery to more easily stand out.
Companies are characterized by three major traits: price, quality, and service. Walmart, Marsh, and Meijer all
focus on low prices and some service. In contrast, our bakery would value higher quality baked goods and
personal service. Our prices may be slightly higher, but our products would be from better quality of
ingredients and would still be very reasonable priced for the industry.
The major weakness our bakery has when stacked against these three supermarkets is convenience. Our
products would be fresher and of higher quality, thus superior to the goods of these mass produced ‘bakeries’,
but the supermarkets have the advantage that the shoppers will already be entering the stores for their
necessary groceries. Buying baked goods in bulk then would seem to be more convenient than at a different
location.
However, as mentioned in the industry product development, pastries are mostly not bought in the same,
regulated manner as groceries, but are bought on a whim. So long as a customer is not already grocery
shopping when he or she craves our competing products, it would be just as convenient to enter a bakery, if
not more, than a grocery store. The possible customer would have to walk farther in a grocery to buy baked
goods than by simply stepping into our bakery.
Management Team Plan:
Barbie’s Bakery will be a general partnership between Miranda Fuchs, Megan Swan, and Corey Deaton, who
will also act as operators. All three partners will 8
11. share equal ownership of the company. A general partnership was deemed the best form of ownership for the
company’s needs.
Miranda Fuchs will act as the Chief Executive Officer and will manage and assist in the baking. Ms. Fuchs is
organized, confident, and persistent. She has experience in sales and customer service from her past
employment experience. Because of her hard working and very motivated personality she strives to maintain
a solid and stable working environment for herself and the employees under her. With her previous design
experience and powerful initiative, she hopes to put the Barbie’s Bakery out there to the public and make it
the best that it can be.
Megan Swan will be the Chief Marketing Officer and also act as the primary baker and cake designer for the
business. Ms. Swan has practiced baking pastries for years, and has already taken a cupcake decorating class.
She has won several honorable awards for her artwork. Along with her abilities in baking and design, Ms.
Swan has a strong work ethic, great social skills, and a lot of training and experience in leadership. She will
be obtaining all licensing and certification needed for the job.
Corey Deaton will function as the Chief Financial Officer and also handle the website and technological
aspects of the facility. Mr. Deaton has taken a series of financial as well as computer classes at Surat High
School. He has also assisted with finances at Liberty Baptist Church with his father Doug Deaton.
Some help will be needed in opening our business. We will hire two assistants for baking and serving
customers that will work part time. They will be paid minimum wage and only one will be needed per day.
These initial two assistants working five days a week between them will amass around 20 hours a week,
making their total salaries about $110 a week and $5500 a year. As the business grows, more assistants may
be hired but will not exceed two working at a time.
Marketing Plan:
Barbie’s is a bakery that sells quality bread and other pastries. We want to target the higher income of the
middle class, maintain the quality of our products but also keep the prices reasonable. We will strive to make
our food something that our customers enjoy, but supply an even greater experience by incorporating
technology. Surat has a wide variety of people, ranging from poverty level to wealthy. We would like to see
daily somewhere from 100 to 200 customers varying in age groups but focused on our target market.
Target Market: Our target customers mainly consist of the higher income consumers, and the top of the
middle class. Although this is a smaller group of consumers to appeal to, we hope to position our-self as a
business in the downtown area or along the bypass in Surat where there is easy access to our selected
consumers. We expect our customers to be of the working class, people with steady jobs, and possibly
families.
Need: There is no other bakery in Surat besides the small sections of the bigger supermarkets: Meijer, Marsh,
and Walmart. The portion of our business that will attract our customers is not only our products, but also the
12. experience that consumers will gain when they walk in the door. By keeping the wide variety of available
products 9
13. similar to those of our competitors, and increasing the quality of several items we hope to stand out among
the few smaller competitors. On top of our daily baked normal bread goods, pastries, and daily selection of
sweets, we will make available our specially designed cakes that can be designed directly by the customer on
the website, or in our design area on location in the store. We will be the only bakery in Surat that provides
this service of the use of technology to design cakes to our customers, and we hope that will gain us
popularity in the public eye, and attract more consumers.
